PSU question, Need Advice!?!?

[BlackMountainCow]

Hi!

I'm looking for a decent PSU for the following sys. I am so clueless cause there are so many opinions and manufacturers and Watts and Volts and ... 🙁


Shuttle AN35N-Ultra (FSB 400)

2x265 MB Kingston HyperX (FSB400)

Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton, 333 FSB) @ (hopefully) 3200+ (400 FSB)

ThermalTake Volcano 12

MSI GeForce 4200 TI

3 80mm fans

Soundcard


This machine is supposed to run 24/7/365 at 100% CPU load !!! (DC crunching)

Noise is not that big of a problem but it shouldn't be that loud as well, as my head is about 1,5 meters away while asleep 😀 ... but if I sleep I sleep very deeply ....😉



I have no idea what PSU is good for that. 300, 350, 400, 500 W? All I know is that my board has that Pentium4 12 V PSU connector and it says it has to be connected in order to run. Why doI need a Pentium 4 connector for an AMD system ... I just don't get it 🙁

Plz help. I'm not a n00b about PCs and hardware, but I haven't build a system for 2,5 years and back then it was all different and easier 😀 This is really driving me mad!! 😕 Also, will the overclocking affect the power usage? As I understand it it won't, as I keep VCore on standard.


Thx in advance!

 

[Acanthus]

Thats not a very heavy load for a PSU, a quality 300w+ would do fine.

Just make sure to get a decent brand like Antec or Enermax as they tend to be more durable (in my experiance) and use higher quality fans.

I personally reccomend the Antec Truepower 330w.

 

[bootoo]

A quality budget solution would be fortron or sparkle. If the truepower is a little too much $$$ that is.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Would a Levicom 450 W (SPS-450XPL-B) be a good solution?

specs:

LEVICOM 450 Watt ATX, PFC, P4, CE
FullSafety, 2Fan, BlackLine, VPO, BlueLED

+3,3 V: 30A
+5,0 V: 32A
+12,0 V: 16A
-5 V: 0,3 A
-12 V: 0,8 A
+5Vsb: 2,0A


Would cost me around 60 $

 

[SpeedFreak03]

The Levicom might be okay, but honestly I had a generic PSU die on me, and it killed my $30 DVD-ROM drive and $50 CD-RW with it. If I had spent a little more money in the beginning, it would have cost me less later on. I now have an Antec Smartpower 350W and love it. Its fine for my P4 2.6C @ 3120MHz, GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB DDR 8XAGP, 1GB PC3200 Kingston HyperX DDR ram, running 24x7.

-Josh

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow
Would a Levicom 450 W (SPS-450XPL-B) be a good solution?

specs:

LEVICOM 450 Watt ATX, PFC, P4, CE
FullSafety, 2Fan, BlackLine, VPO, BlueLED

+3,3 V: 30A
+5,0 V: 32A
+12,0 V: 16A
-5 V: 0,3 A
-12 V: 0,8 A
+5Vsb: 2,0A


Would cost me around 60 $

Well, an Antec TruePower 380 only costs $55.00 at newegg. Here's the specs for it:

Output: +3.3V@28A, +5V@35A, -5V@0.5A, +12V@18A, -12V@1A, +5VSB@2A
MTBF: 80,000 hrs. @ 25ºC

Oh yeah, did anyone tell you that the Antec's come with a 3-year warranty? 🙂

 

[BlackMountainCow]

OK! 😀

I'm convinced to go for an Antec PSU. The prob is that here in Germany Antec is still very expensive. The True power 380 won'tl ship for less then 90 $! 🙁

What is the difference between the TruePower and SmartPower?


Thx all !

 

[wicktron]

TruePower has individual regulators for the +12v rail and the +5v/+3v rails, whereas the SmartPower shares.
While Antec TruePower's are reliable PSU's, for great price/performance, I would look at getting a Fortron or TTGI.